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15. τινὲς μὲν καὶ διὰ φθόνον καὶ ἔριν. “Some actually for envy and strife, while others, (as) actually, for goodwill.” Here he refers to that Judaistic school within the Church which followed him with persistent opposition, especially since the crisis when, in council, he won a decisive victory over their main principle (Acts 15). They held that the Gospel was indeed the crown of the Law, but that the Law was also the permanent fence of the Gospel; the blessings of the baptismal covenant could be reached only through that of circumcision. Such a tenet would not necessarily preclude a true teaching of the Person and central Work of Christ, however much it might (as in time it did) tend to a beclouded view even of His Person (see Appendix D). Thus St Paul could on the one hand rejoice that such teachers were conveying to pagan hearers the primary Fact of salvation, Jesus Christ; on the other hand he could urgently warn Christians (see the Ep. to the Galatians, and below, Php 3:2) against their distinctive teaching, as pregnant with spiritual disaster.
For allusions to this class of opponents see Act 15:1-31; Act 20:30 (perhaps), Act 21:20-25; and the Ep. to the Galatians at large. The passages where he asserts with a special emphasis his authority, or his veracity, very probably point towards their untiring opposition and ill-will.
Not that the Judaizer of this type was his only adversary within the Church, He had also to face an opposition of a “libertine” type, a distortion of his own doctrine of free grace (Rom 6:1, &c., and below, Php 3:18-19); and again, of the mystic or gnostic type (see the Ep. to the Colossians). But Php 3:1-9 fixes the reference here to Christians of the type of Act 15:1.
διʼ εὐδοκίαν. Εὐδοκία in N. T. usually means “good-pleasure,” the choice of what “seems good” to the chooser. See Mat 11:26; Luk 10:21; Eph 1:5; Eph 1:9; below, Php 2:13. But the idea of “good-will” occurs Luk 2:14; Rom 10:1; and perhaps 2Th 1:11. Both meanings appear in O. T. Greek (e.g. Psalms 51 (LXX., 50):19; 145 (LXX., 144):17; and see Sir 29:26).—The “good-will” here was that of loving loyalty to the Lord and His afflicted messenger.
D. EBIONITE CHRISTOLOGY. (CH. Php 1:15)
THE allusion in our note to “lowered and distorted views” of the Person of our Lord on the part of later Judaizers more or less Christian, has regard mainly to Ebionism, a heresy first named by Irenæus (cent. ii.) but which seems to have been the direct descendant of the school which specially opposed St Paul. It lingered on till cent. v.
It appears to have had two phases; the Pharisaic and the Essene. As regards the doctrine of Christ’s Person, the Pharisaic Ebionites held that Jesus was born in the ordinary course of nature, but that at His Baptism He was “anointed by election, and became Christ” (Justin Martyr, Dial., c. xlix.); receiving power to fulfil His mission as Messiah, but still remaining man. He had neither pre-existence nor Divinity. The Essene Ebionites, who were in fact Gnostics, held (at least in many instances) that Christ was a super-angelic created Spirit, incarnate at many successive periods in various men (for instance, in Adam), and finally in Jesus. At what point in the existence of Jesus the Christ entered into union with Him was not defined.
See Smith’s Dict. of Christian Biography, &c., art. Ebionism.